1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention is in the field of audio communication systems and more particularly in the field of telephone voice mail systems.
2. History of Related Art
Voice mail systems refer generally to any system designed to perform telephone call answering and message handling services. Voice mail systems have proliferated and evolved since their first introduction to offer many convenient and useful features. Voice mail is now a significant reality for a large percentage of busy professionals. Almost all voice mail systems offer users the ability to record a personalized voice message, listen to voice mail messages from a remote location, save messages, reply to messages, forward messages to one or more other mailboxes in the system with or without introductory messages, define and use mailbox groups, and review saved messages. In addition, many systems offer users the ability to forward incoming calls directly to a specified voice mail box or forward incoming calls to another phone number. While all of these features and more are available on voice mail systems, each of them is typically activated on an ad hoc basis in response to user commands that are submitted by entering a sequence of telephone keypad digits or voice requests in response to a voice-based command menu. Thus, the behavior of the voice mail system is static in the sense that a user must “manually” provide the desired commands to activate specific features each time the voice mail system is accessed. In contrast to this static model, the voice mail needs and practices of many users are dynamic and, to some extent, predictable. A user is likely to use voice mail systems in different ways depending upon other circumstances. The time of day, for example, may correlate well to the manner in which users access their voice mail systems. During certain hours when the number of voice messages is high and other activities are going on, a user may wish to access the voice mail system in the manner that is highly efficient or quick. At other times when there is likely to be less external activity, such as during lunch or after regular business hours, the user may have more time to review messages. Moreover, the time of day is but an example of a parameter that may include or correlate to the voice mail patterns of one or more users. Other parameters may also provide useful guidance to the way the voice mail system is used. It would be desirable to implement a voice mail system in which the parameters that are likely to have a significant bearing on the manner in which a voice mail system are captured in a user definable profile that governs the behavior of the voice mail system in handling incoming calls and user requests.